For Graduate Students

Learn more about ELSP, our offerings, and important policies.

The goal of the English Language Support Program (ELSP) is to support and enrich the experience of international students who use English as an additional language. The ELSP recognizes that students enter Emory with multifaceted language backgrounds. In line with Laney Graduate School’s mission to support the success of all students through the fostering of diversity, equity, and inclusion, we aim to offer high-quality language instruction that advances the communicative skills of multilingual graduate students.

For some LGS students, ELSP coursework is a required, integral part of the curriculum. Other graduate students and Emory postdoctoral fellows elect to participate in ELSP courses and workshops to advance their English language capabilities.

  • For more about language assessment requirements for first year graduate students, please review our language assessment page.
  • For more information about the ESLP and its offerings, please read the information below and then fill out our ELSP interest form.

English Language Support

We offer courses and workshops designed for students at a wide range of proficiencies, from intermediate to advanced. We are here to help students engaged with ELSP to move beyond their current English language proficiencies.

Speaking Support

Speaking support focuses on improving both fluency and accuracy and centers around the completion of academic tasks, such as giving various types of presentations (for specialist and non-specialist audiences) as well as participating in discussions across a wide range of topics. Participants have multiple opportunities to practice communicating information from their own fields of study. Some example offerings include:

  • Communication skills for intermediate speakers (Course)
  • Communication skills for advanced speakers (Course)
  • Seminar in professional communication (Course)
  • Talking about your research (Workshop)
  • Developing professional body language & voice for online communication (Workshop)

Writing Support

Writing support is designed for participants who exhibit some of the qualities of clear and purposeful academic writing and yet may need direct instruction on key concepts, such as audience, purpose, academic style, rhetorical moves, and cohesion, along with consistent writing practice and feedback from a language specialist to communicate their ideas more clearly.

  • Fundamentals of graduate writing (Course)
  • Research article writing (Course)
  • Online tools to improve your academic style & word choice (Workshop)
  • Writing an abstract (Workshop)

Other English Language Support

Contact us

To ask questions or find out more about how the English Language Support Program can help you become a more effective, fluent communicator, please complete this ELSP interest form.